ABSTRACT
This book examines aspects of performance in some of the extant speeches of Attic oratory that have come down to us in textual form. Its approach is part of what could be called the ‘performative turn’ in classical studies that has taken place over the last few decades. Performance is among the most talked-about topics in classical scholarship. Scholars have been debating, inter alia, the performance aspects of epic, drama, lyric and iambic poetry and of many other Greek verse genres. Although these genres, especially drama, are performative par excellence, Athenian society in general was, to use the words of Taplin, ‘extraordinarily performanceful’. Performance culture pervaded almost all aspects of Athenian life: public performances were held as part of religious festivals, athletic and musical contests, symposia and the celebration of victorious campaigns by the polis.1
